Looking to dive into the world of TikTok Ads and curious about how much do TikTok ads cost in 2023? Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this blog, we’ll give you a quick pricing guide to help you understand the factors that influence TikTok Ads cost and how to optimize it.
Oh, and did we mention we have some expert tips and tricks for you too? So, grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and get ready to level up your TikTok advertising game!
Table of Contents
Types of TikTok ads buying methods
TikTok offers different ways to show ads, and each way costs a different amount. Hence, to find out the exact cost of each way, we need to learn about all the methods for buying ads on TikTok.
At present, advertisers have three options for buying TikTok ads:
- Bidding
- Booking
- Reach and Frequency
Each way of buying ads serves a different purpose. It relies on what you want to achieve with your TikTok ads. However, Bidding (or CPC) is the most popular choice. It’s flexible and simple, suitable for businesses of all sizes, whether you want to boost sales or increase brand awareness.
Bidding type
This TikTok ads buying method is quite familiar to advertisers like Facebook ads or Google ads. Some unique features of this method include:
- Easy to set up on TikTok Ads Manager
- Don’t have to buy ad space
- Flexible cost
- Maximizing conversion
Booking type
TikTok provides this reservation approach because there’s a limit to how many ad spots are available. If advertisers want to use these ad formats, they have to plan ahead and reserve their spot. These ads can’t run on automatic bidding like some other types. This category of ads includes TopView, Branded Effect, and Branded Hashtag Challenge.
Here are some key points about the reservation method:
- Costs more compared to bidding
- Needs advance booking and payment through TikTok agencies
- Excellent for boosting awareness and branding
- Unique ad options are only found on TikTok
Reach and frequency
Reach and Frequency (R&F) enables you to manage how many of your intended users see your ads and how frequently these ads appear, all within a set budget.
R&F comes in two distribution styles: Standard and Top Feed. The latter, Top Feed, is a more advanced option that fine-tunes where the ads display within the standard version.
This advertising method is commonly paired with other types to ensure a higher number of people see and engage with the ads, ultimately enhancing brand awareness.
TikTok Ads Cost
For TikTok ads, the minimum budget required is $500. The expenses begin at $0.50 per thousand views and $0.02 per click. Based on our experience with various brands, we suggest allocating a minimum of $20 per day for your initial campaign.
What is the price of TikTok ad-bidding types?
You can determine the estimated expenses for bidding on advertisements by four bidding techniques which include:
CPM
The average pricing for ads on the TikTok platform is TikTok CPM (Cost per Mille). It’s the cost you’re willing to pay for 1000 impressions. The price for CPM is around $10 per 1,000 views, with a minimum campaign spending cap of $500. However, the actual CPM can vary based on factors like ad performance, target audience, and geographical location.
Some companies have reported different CPM numbers, with examples ranging from $6.06 to as low as $1.82 per 1,000 views. Compared to Facebook and Google, TikTok ads have significantly cheaper CPMs, with less than half the traffic cost of Google and three times less than Facebook.
CPC
TikTok CPC (Cost Per Click) refers to the average pricing for each click on TikTok Ads. According to various sources, the average CPC for TikTok Ads is around $1. However, the actual CPC can vary depending on the target audience, geographical location, and specific ad campaigns.
For example, JungleTopp reports a CPC value of $0.19. Other companies have achieved even lower CPC values, such as a skincare brand with $0.32 per click, an online jewelry store with $0.13 per click, and a beauty brand with as low as £0.04 per click. This low cost per click makes TikTok ads appealing to businesses across various industries
CPV
If a YouTube advertisement spends $10,000 to $30,000 to reach 100,000 viewers, on TikTok, you can designate a maximum CPV bid for every 1,000 views of a 6-second or 2-second video view.
Basically, this bidding type will only charge you if there are viewers watching your video. With this ad-bidding type, you have the flexibility to choose your desired cost per view on TikTok. TikTok recommends you bid from $0.01 or higher to maximize your campaign performance.
oCPM
Unlike CPM TikTok ads, the oCPM (Optimized Cost per Mille) bidding method reflects the amount you’re ready to spend for 1,000 impressions, much like CPM. Nonetheless, this system focuses on users who are more likely to take action, such as making a purchase, showing interest, or having similar product preferences.
oCPM will be available when you turn up the “Smart performance mode campaign” for 2 Advertising Objectives: App Promotion and Website conversions. This ad-bidding type will cost from $4.
How much do TikTok ad-booking types cost?
Top View
TikTok Top View Ads is a type of advertising video that appears immediately when a user opens the app. It’s the most sophisticated ad format on TikTok, occupying the entire screen for a full day. This attracts a substantial number of views, resulting in strong engagement and improved brand recognition. Advertisers are required to invest $65,000 per day to secure 7.4 million impressions through Top View Ads.
Branded Effect
Branded Effect employs stickers, filters, and motion effects to emphasize products, promotions, and brand identities. Users have the ability to craft their own content incorporating brand effects from TikTok’s video recording filter options. To engage in advertising through Branded Effect, the expenditure required amounts to approximately $45,000 for a month.
Branded Hashtag Challenge
The Branded Hashtag Challenge is a type of advertisement in which a brand comes up with a special hashtag and encourages users to use it when sharing a video related to a particular topic. This allows advertisers to create their own unique dance or comedy challenges using a hashtag as an invitation for users to make their own versions over a six-day period.
As expected, this is one of TikTok’s more expensive advertising formats. However, sponsors enjoy various advantages like getting official music to go along with the hashtag and specific content safeguards to prevent videos from being restricted due to the challenge. The cost of booking a Branded Hashtag Challenge ranges from approximately $130,000 to $160,000.
How much does Reach & Frequency cost?
With Reach & Frequency, advertisers can manage the number of people who see their ads and how often the ads appear, all for a set price. Once the system gathers details about the audience, goal, and budget, it will provide an estimate for two main things: the number of ad views and how many times the ads show, all at an average cost for every 1,000 views (CPM).
This means that you can adjust and decide the cost of a Reach & Frequency ad campaign based on what each advertiser needs.
TikTok Ads cost in comparison to other platforms
Because the average costs depend on many factors, making a fair comparison among social advertising platforms can be difficult. However, when considering CPCs and CPMs, TikTok tends to be more cost-effective compared to Facebook and LinkedIn. Take a look at some benchmarks below to make informed decisions on running TikTok ads.
| Platform | CPM | CPC | CPV | CTR |
| TikTok | $9.72 | $1.77 | $0.01 | 0.65% |
| Meta | $25.04 | $4.11 | $1.06 | 1.47% |
| $37.62 | $7.32 | $1.18 | 0.75% |
Factors impact TikTok Ads cost & how to optimize
TikTok Ads creative
The quality of your TikTok ads’ creativity greatly impacts how much your ad campaign will cost. When your ad is engaging and captivating, it boosts the likelihood of users clicking on it, which in turn reduces your expenses.
To make the most of your ad budget, concentrate on producing attractive and suitable ads that connect well with the audience you’re aiming for. Make sure your content stands out, grabs attention, and effectively communicates your message.
By dedicating time and energy to creating engaging TikTok ad creatives, you can enhance the effectiveness of your TikTok Ads while managing costs effectively.
TikTok Ads bidding strategy
To optimize your TikTok Ads cost, you should choose the right bidding strategy. Here are the options:
Cost Cap: Cost Cap (or previously called Bid Cap) gives the system an average cost per result that it tries to achieve. As a result, the cost per result sometimes will fluctuate higher or lower than the bid amount. It’s available for all of the Advertising objectives on TikTok Ads Manager. However, this bidding strategy and the Lowest Cap will be applied flexibly by a suggested bid if with Reach and Video Views.
Lowest Cap: Lowest Cost optimizes your ad group budget for maximum results at the lowest cost per result, ensuring you stay within your budget even in competitive auctions. It’s compatible with goals like Traffic, Reach, Video Views, App Installs, Conversion, Lead Generation, and Catalog Sales. With the goals of Reach and Video Views, it will also be flexibly applied by a suggested bid.
Expert tips for TikTok Ads bidding:
- Choose Cost Cap as your bid strategy if you prioritize controlling your daily cost per result.
- For a Conversion Ad campaign with Conversion as your optimization goal, choosing the Lowest Cost as your bid strategy is the best to optimize the daily budget.
- If Cost Cap is your bid strategy, you should set your bid as your target cost per acquisition (CPA).
- If you are running an App Install campaign and want to optimize it based on specific actions of your app users, use App Event Optimization (AEO). For AEO set your bid as your target CPA.
Having access to detailed analytics helps you understand the effectiveness of your ad campaign, make data-driven decisions, and ultimately optimize your TikTok Ads to achieve better results while managing costs efficiently.
Target audience
If you aim for a very particular audience, your ad expense might increase. Moreover, how popular that audience group is can also influence the cost – more competitive groups tend to be pricier.
Location
The expense of ads changes based on where your intended audience is located. For instance, if you’re aiming at a country with fewer TikTok users, the ad expenses might be reduced. Conversely, if your focus is on a country where TikTok is widely used, ad costs could be higher due to stronger competition.
TikTok Ads analytics
By monitoring the analytics consistently, you can make timely adjustments to your ads strategy and optimize your results. If your TikTok ads are not converting as expected, you can refer to the ABCD model to identify and address the underlying issues.
The analytics provide valuable insights into metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, conversions, and engagement, allowing you to understand the effectiveness of your ads and make data-driven decisions to improve performance.
If you’re running an eCommerce business, it’s recommended to explore NestAds, as it offers Business Intelligence features that provide in-depth analytics, not only on the performance of your ads but also on the sales generated by those ads.
It is worth running TikTok Ads?
With all the incredible potential and cost-effective options that TikTok Ads offer, it’s definitely worth considering them for your advertising strategy. However, running effective ads on TikTok can be challenging, especially if you’re new to the platform. But fear not! We’ve got your back.
Be sure to check out our comprehensive guide on how to run TikTok ads in 2023. It’s packed with valuable insights, tips, and tricks to help you navigate the TikTok advertising landscape like a pro. So, don’t miss out on this opportunity to tap into the vast audience of TikTok users and take your business to new heights. Happy advertising!
